Improving the security of open UNIX platforms

[Warren Togami]

http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-secun

This article takes a look at a little shell application that uses an
innovative approach to increasing open UNIX security. A step-by-step
analysis of the code is provided. The author's areas of expertise are in Web
programming and cutting-edge network security development.

This article talks mainly about the MD5 checksum verification tools built in
Mandrake and FreeBSD, but it can be applied to increase security for other
Unix variants too.

This is similar in concept to file integrity checking tools like Tripwire.
Open Source Version
http://www.tripwire.org
Commercial Version that costs about $1,000 per server when I called for a
price quote.
http://www.tripwire.com